This invention relates to apparatus and methods for the recording of alphameric information. More specifically, it relates to digital computing systems employing text input capabilities.
Text input capabilities for digital computers such as word processing systems are well known. They most commonly comprise a micro-processor based computer running under an operating system having handlers for a variety of peripheral input and output devices. The available word processing systems often belong to a family, each adapted to function on specific hardware on which the system operates. Each of the programs may have unique manners of accessing the associated input/output peripheral units, although many manage their input/output functions through commercially available operating system function calls.
The typical text editor associated with a word processing system, in addition to inputting character strings as they are typed by pressing a sequence of keys on a keyboard, also has the facility of passing certain routines to execution by the overall system when called for by multiple keystrokes, typically a so-called "function key" and additional following keystrokes. In addition there may be specific so-called function keys which are dedicated to call for the performance of certain tasks within the overall word processing system.
One of the useful features of some text input systems is the incorporation of stored text into the typing stream by typing only a few keys. For example, a system comprising an IBM PC computer together with a software package known as KeyWorks has the ability to utilize in combination two keys, one of which may be a dedicated function key, to call into the program subroutines for inserting fairly large text segments.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved keyboard input system wherein the user can create a library of short expressions, typically one or a few keystrokes, which, when typed in the normal manner and followed by a space or other delimiters, cause the substitution of a predetermined passage of text into the stream of text.
It is a further object of the present invention to utilize a modified keyboard handler subset of the overall system to implement the aforesaid invention so that a single keyboard input system will function with any word processing system making conventional calls upon the keyboard handler.